Warmerdam Paeonia B.V.
Our Warmerdam-family has been having green blood running through their veins for a very long time. At the end of the 19th century no crop specialization was present yet. In those days mixed cultures were common practice in our home area. Vegetables were the main crops, and some peonies ('Duchesse de Nemours', 'Rubra Plena') were grown already as well. My late grandfather expanded the peony assortment with particularly 'Sarah Bernhardt'. Next to peonies, he mainly grew broad beans (see picture on the top left), strawberries, fresias and carnations.
Only one of my grandparents' five children was truly enthusiastic about peonies. Luckily for me, this happened to be my father! My dad, Wout Warmerdam, switched to simply and solely floriculture. With this the vegetable growing days were over, as it was for many nurseries in and around Roelofarendsveen (our town of origin) in those days. Fresia, Ornithogalum and especially Paeonia became our main crops. In the 80's and 90's of the last century my father added a dozen varieties, bringing the total number of different kinds of peonies that he grew to around 15. Among these were the still very popular varieties 'Red Charm', 'Shining Light' and 'Pêcher'.
Since the year 2000, I (Ruud) entered the peony adventure with complete devotion. We are very proud to call ourselves 100% specialized in peonies for such a long time now, all side crops have definitely moved to the history books now. We continuously add very many new varieties to our peony collection, resulting in over 1200 varieties that we currently grow with great pleasure and devotion. From this huge collection, we will be offering exactly 275 kinds of peonies in 2022!
We review the varieties in our stock every year, and the number of different peonies proves to be ever growing. We aim for growing an assortment of distinctive peonies which have great garden- and/or cut flower qualities. Next to supplying wholesale customers such as colleague growers, export companies, webshops, garden centers and landscapers, we also ship peonies to retail customers all over the world. A fine selection of tree peonies has also become a standard group in our offerings, and all on their own root system for quickest and best results for our customers!